Last days of an angry and wounded president, plus five highlights from 'Vrye Weekblad'
Here's what's hot in the latest edition of the Afrikaans digital weekly
Donald Trump has lost his PGA and the outgoing US president is apoplectic.
By stripping the PGA championship from one of his top golf clubs, Bedminster in New Jersey, as retribution for his role in last week’s bloody right-wing insurrection in Washington DC, the Professional Golfing Association has dealt the Trump Organisation a financial blow worth millions of dollars. And as we know, writes Arrie Rossouw in the new issue of Vrye Weekblad, putting a hole in Trump’s personal pocket is akin to plunging a dagger in his heart, and a transgression he will never forget.
Rubbing salt in his wounds is an announcement by New York City that it will end the Trump Organisation’s $18m (R272m) contract to operate the Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, the Central Park Carousel and the Wollman and Lasker ice-skating rinks in the city. It is this sort of cash flow that the Trumps will be counting on to survive.
Read more about the situation in the US and more news and analysis from SA in this week's issue of Vrye Weekblad.
Add to this that Big Tech has silenced Trump’s public voice by banning him from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, and shutting down social media app Parler, plus news that he has lost access to the only bank still willing to do business with him and which is now likely to call in debt of about $400m (R6.04bn), and a picture emerges of the blows the Trump empire and family dynasty have suffered in the past week.
Arrie reports from Colorado on a scandalous week for the twice-impeached president, and the swift action by the business community to rebuke number 45 and effectively turn off his lights and water.
Meanwhile, three times as many soldiers were deployed to the US capital this week than the total combined troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, as tensions remain high before next Wednesday’s inauguration.
Must-read articles in this week's Vrye Weekblad
A PANDEMIC OF INCOMPETENCE | Max du Preez is spitting mad about beaches, the blunt instrument of the alcohol ban, and about money being spent on bodyguards while the country cannot afford a vaccine.
SHAMELESS | Eskom’s Matshela Koko’s third appearance at the Zondo Commission delivered more denial, victimhood and a show of rage.
FREE TO READ – NEED TO KNOW | From the fuss about ivermectin to the latest on the vaccine, Elsabé Brits provides answers to 10 urgent questions about the second wave of Covid-19.
KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON TEXTING | Willem Kempen pours oil on troubled waters after changes to WhatsApp’s privacy policy caused the messenger app’s more than two billion users to lose their cool.
#DOPBEDONNERD Nr. 8 | A low-alcohol edition of our regular feature about drinks, drinking and drinkers.